Creative Sound Blaster ZxR review

Sound quality through both the RCA and headphone outputs is excellent. There’s a solid bass presence, alongside plenty of treble and mid-range detail. We appreciated the great sense of space and separation that really lent itself to live studio and orchestral recordings. There’s not much to choose between the quality of modern dedicated sound card configurations, but when it comes to music reproduction we think this one’s a cut above last year’s Recon3D.

Recording quality is also great. We really appreciated having proper RCA inputs so we could connect the analogue outputs from a mixing or DJ console for recording. The optical S/PDIF input also makes it easy to take perfect digital audio samples from devices such as DVD players with an S/PDIF output.

Sound quality is excellent across the board

All this is very helpful if you’re making sample patches or recording live mixes, especially if you’re capturing audio from older analogue equipment, making it a good option for anyone wanting to digitise vinyl played on their existing record player. However, the ZxR isn’t much use for instrumentalists due to its lack of instrument and microphone inputs. The early review sample of the sound card we tested also lacks low-latency ASIO drivers, which are needed for serious music production.

It’s a little hard to spot the ZxR’s ideal niche, but it’s nonetheless an excellent sound card. It’s best for listening to high quality audio, but we loved the convenience of the external connection dongle and its multiple connections that let us chat during games without having to wear a bulky headset. Music enthusiasts are still better off with a high-end DAC such as the Arcam rPAC, but if you love your music, want to game and record audio from other sources, the ZxR is a great buy.